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Being the impatient type, I can’t wait until the Fall to see beautiful design of iOS 7 on my phone. Luckily for me there are people in the world like Philip Wong who design themes so that people like me don’t have to wait. Wong’s iOS 7 Theme is a Winterboard theme available on Cydia (sorry, for jailbroken iPhones only). There are a few iOS 7 themes available on Cydia but in my opinion Philip Wong’s is, by far, the best and most complete. I’ve been using this theme on my iPhone for about a week now and he’s made updates on a daily basis. The video above shows Wong’s iOS 7 theme on my iPhone 5 on top of the LivePapers animated wallpaper (I thought it looked very similar to the Dynamic Wallpaper that is shown on iOS 7).

To download this gorgeous Winterboard theme for you iPhone or iPod (iPad support hopefully coming soon), search Cydia for the theme titled iOS 7 Theme by pw5a29 (in the ModMyi repo).

After seeing today’s WWDC keynote, I’m super-excited about iOS 7. I think it looks gorgeous and brings some much needed UI changes. After the keynote I went over to Apple’s website to see the pictures and noticed that for some reason, iOS 7 is only shown on the white iPhone 5. I have a black iPhone 5 and wanted to know what the new iOS will look like on my device. I was curious whether iOS 7 looks as beautiful on the black iPhone as it does the white. Here are some hastily made mockups of iOS 7 on the black iPhone that I whipped up.

I think the screenshots look great on the black iPhone, but I have to admit, I think they look better on the white one.

I’ve been an iPhone user since the 3GS and will probably never switch to a different phone (mainly because of how much I’ve invested in the App Store and iTunes over the past few years). My work phone, on the other hand, is an Android and I’m going to be honest, I love it. I love the customization capabilities and the graphic effects like the live wallpapers. One of the things I really love about my Android is the cube effect when scrolling between screens from the homescreen. Sadly, this wasn’t an effect that my iPhone was capable of….until now.

Barrel is an iOS application by developer Aaron Ash that adds awesome graphic effects to the Springboard when scrolling through the homescreen of your iOS device. There are several different effects to choose from, take a look at the video for a demonstration of each one.

Unfortunately, Barrel is only available for Jailbroken iOS devices (hopefully iOS 7 will provide similar features). It can be purchased from Cydia and is well worth the $2.99 price tag.

I’ve always been a huge fan of time lapse photography. I recently came across a phenomenal time lapse video called Asylum by District 7 Media and got inspired to experiment with time lapse on my own. I am researching options for a good remote for my DSLR with the timed interval function (if you recommend one, please leave a comment) but in the meantime I was looking for a time lapse app for my iPhone and iPad to make quick videos and decided to go with Motion Pics by Cosmonaut Software.

Motion Pics is very easy to use since it automatically calculates the settings based on the set number of frames, frame interval and playback frame rate, but a little knowledge on the fundamentals of time lapse photography is very helpful. Once the settings have been made, just hit record and Motion Pics will take the photos in the intervals specified. When it’s done the video will be automatically exported to the Camera Roll.

For an initial experiment with Motion Pics, I made 2 ice cubes from water I dyed red and blue with food coloring and placed them in a glass full of cooking oil. For some reason I was obsessed with the effects of mixing oil and water when I was a kid and memory popped in my head when I was trying to think of something to record.

I take my son on bike rides around the neighborhood almost every day and using my iPhone tripod mount, I can attach my iPhone to the handlebar of my bike to make time lapse videos of our rides. It’s really cool to see our entire hour to hour and a half ride condensed down to a couple of minutes (Warning: if you’re prone to motion sickness, I recommend that you skip this video).

Finally, I wanted to get some smooth panning shots and I saw that modifying kitchen timers was what the cool kids who dabble in time lapse were doing. I picked up a cheap kitchen timer and some hardware and made a very ugly but functional 360 degree panning mount for my iPhone. This was the test video I made using the kitchen timer mount.

Eventually, I came across the Camalapse from camarush.com which is essentially the same thing except much more ascetically pleasing.

I have several more time lapse videos that I’ll be sharing soon. If you have any time lapse videos that you made with Motion Pics, or any other iPhone app, or any time lapse videos at all, leave a comment with the link, I’d love to check them out.

I really like using my iPhone to perform magic because I always have my phone with me, which is good for a quick, impromptu performance. The Apple App Store has a good selection of magic tricks, most of which can be performed without any additional props (coins, cards, etc.). I’ve performed several of these iPhone tricks and the problem with most of them is that the spectators are quick to assume that the secrets lie in the technology within the iPhone (and in most cases they’re right). For card trick apps, most spectators I’ve performed for actually believe that the iPhone can “hear” which card was chosen when it is said aloud. The tricks are fun and entertaining but they leave a lot of heat on the the technology which seems to take away from the mystery.

iLoGo, on the other hand, is a magic trick for the iPhone 4 and 4S that uses the actual iPhone for the illusion. With iLoGo, you borrow a spectator’s iPhone and actually move the Apple logo from it’s location on the top-center of the phone towards the bottom, or remove it from the phone completely (returning the spectator’s iPhone in it’s original condition, of course). Watch the video from MagicGeek.com for a quick performance.

iLogo is priced a bit high at $45 but it looks like a strong effect and with the millions of iPhone 4 and 4S users out there, I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding spectators.

The iPad 2’s HD video capabilities and gorgeous display make it a great all-in-one video capturing and editing device. Unfortunately, I find using the iPad to record video very awkward because of it’s size so I actually never use it for that purpose. I do a lot of video recording of my son and of various scenes for making cinemagraphs and rely solely on my iPhone for capturing video. Mobile software company, Makayama, has developed a product that might allow me to starting using my iPad for making movies. The Movie Mount is an accessory that allows you to mount an iPad 2 to a tripod for smooth and stable video capture. Check out the video above to see all of the great features of the Movie Mount, which includes the ability to use lenses and a directional microphone. If you are the proud owner of a Movie Mount, please let me know what you think of it.